July 2012: The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) has released a new analysis of women’s land rights, titled “Securing Women’s Tenure and Leadership for Forest Management: A Summary of the Asian Experience,” which highlights the need to recognize women’s rights to forest and land resources in order to achieve climate and poverty goals in Asia.

The analysis concludes that women continue to be discriminated against and exploited in resource management processes throughout Asia because of unclear, unsecured and unequal tenure rights. It underlines that, to be effective, programmes and policies to address climate change and promote sustainable development must incorporate gender issues.

The research contains case studies from Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and the region of South and Southeast Asia, which show that many poor Asian women face challenges related to: generic gender issues; the interrelations between poverty and tenure issues; and gender-blind and gender-biased development interventions. As a result, it concludes, they are locked in a cycle of poverty and disenfranchisement.

RRI recommends the development of a framework to improve gender justice and secure tenure rights in Asia, which should be based on four interconnected areas of action as follows: increasing women’s visibility through mobilization and networking; building capacity within projects and organizations; reinforcing participatory ethos; and increasing the link with policy. [Publication: Securing Women’s Tenure and Leadership for Forest Management: A Summary of the Asian Experience] [Publication Webpage]